Protesters in Haiti demand ouster of UN troops

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Protesters calling for the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from Haiti clashed with police Wednesday outside the earthquake-damaged Haitian National Palace.

The protesters hurled rocks at Haitian police in riot gear, and the officers responded by firing volleys of tear gas canisters toward the crowd of several hundred demonstrators. As the crowd dispersed, many protesters fled into the Champs des Mars, the park that became a huge encampment of tents and shanties following the January 2010 earthquake.

There did not appear to be any serious injuries among protesters, who said they wanted to see a withdrawal of the U.N. troops who have helped keep order in Haiti since 2004, when political violence engulfed the country.

But a group of protesters in a university near the plaza carried out a young man to an ambulance; minutes before, protesters had lobbed rocks from the building and riot police had fired back with tear gas.

A passenger in the ambulance said the man had been cut by razor wire. Then the vehicle sped off as demonstrators pelted an oncoming riot police truck with stones.

Haitian National Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours told The Associated Press that he hadn't received any reports of injuries.

Protesters said they were angry over the alleged sexual assault of an 18-year-old Haitian man by U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay in the southwestern town of Port-Salut in July. They also expressed anger over a cholera outbreak likely introduced by a battalion from Nepal. The outbreak has killed more than 6,200 people since it surfaced last October, according to the Health Ministry.

"We are doing a peaceful march and asking for MINUSTAH to leave the country," said protester Christo Junior Cadet, referring to the U.N. force by its French acronym.

The U.N. has 12,000 U.N. military and police personnel in Haiti but no peacekeepers were in sight as the protesters clashed with the Haitian police.

Haitian President Michel Martelly is expected to ask for a renewal of the U.N. mission's mandate, which expires next month.

The peacekeeping force has been a fixture in Haiti following a violent rebellion that ousted former President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004. The force in Haiti has been a target of complaints for years, but the criticism has increased in recent weeks after a cell phone video surfaced showing several U.N. soldiers holding down a young Haitian man. It was not immediately clear in the video what else the soldiers may have been doing.

The Wednesday protest came the same day the U.N. released a statement saying that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a trio of senior-ranking officials to Haiti to ensure that a "zero-tolerance" policy on misconduct is enforced.

The U.N., Haiti and Uruguay are investigating the abuse allegations.